Computer system cases come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes. Typical case form factors include desktop and tower cases. Cases such as these typically offer some capacity for expansion. In particular, many cases include three or more 5.25 inch drive bays. Typically, these bays are utilized to hold optical mass storage devices, such as compact disk (“CD”) read-only memory (“CD-ROM”) devices, digital versatile disc (“DVD”) devices, CD or DVD recording devices (such as CD-R or DVD-R devices), or other types of optical mass storage devices.
In the past, computer systems have often been configured with multiple optical mass storage devices. For instance, a computer may be configured with a CD-ROM drive, a DVD playback drive, and a CD or DVD recording device. However, with the advent of multifunction optical mass storage devices, the need for multiple devices has generally been eliminated. As an example, where it was once necessary to include both a recordable CD device and a DVD playback device, a single multifunction device can today provide both DVD playback and CD/DVD recording. Other types of multifunction optical mass storage devices provide additional multifunction features.
As a result of the common use of multifunction optical mass storage devices, many computers now include two or more unused 5.25 inch drive bays. These bays are typically unsuited for holding storage devices that are not specifically intended to be utilized within a 5.25 inch device form factor. As an example, it is generally difficult to utilize hard disk storage devices not specifically designed for use within a 5.25 inch device form factor, such as 2.5 inch hard disk drives, within the space previously utilized for 5.25 inch optical mass storage devices.
In other computer systems, no drive bays may be available for expansion. In order to expand the storage capacity of such computer systems, it is frequently necessary to utilize mass storage devices mounted within an external enclosure. However, currently available external enclosures provide limited functionality for connecting to high speed interfaces, such as the peripheral component interconnect express (“PCIe”) mass storage interface. Currently available external enclosures also provide limited or no functionality for viewing the status of the mass storage devices mounted therein.
It is with respect to these considerations and others that the various embodiments described herein have been made.